Philips says it has anti-piracy video tech

Philips Electronics is announcing today a planned service that will use digital fingerprinting to help online video sites restrict use of copyrighted content. The AP has a brief story here, but we will save you the jump time and give you the nut graf:

Philips did not name any customers who will be using the MediaHedge system, which works by checking the digital “fingerprint” or unique characteristics of video files and looking for a match in Philips’ database of video content. Copyright holders can specify in advance whether they want to allow videos containing their footage to be posted on sites running MediaHedge, or whether they should be blocked or otherwise restricted.

According to the company press release, Philips will be showing the system privately at CES. We have a call in to the company for more info, so stay tuned.